Jeffrey R. McCutcheon, General Electric Professor of Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut
"Enabling New Membrane Chemistries and Morphologies Using Electrospray Manufacturing: New Opportunities for Customization of Membranes for Separations"
Abstract: Thin film composite (TFC) membranes provide a versatile platform for creating highly selective, ultrathin separation layers with high productivity. Their most widespread applications are reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF), where the selective polyamide layer is typically formed directly on a porous support through interfacial polymerization. Developed more than 40 years ago, this manufacturing approach was transformative and remains the dominant method for producing commercial TFC membranes. Yet it also imposes important constraints: the process offers limited control over membrane formation, restricts the range of accessible material chemistries, and can produce undesirable morphological features such as surface roughness.
In this talk, we examine why conventional interfacial polymerization has remained dominant and introduce electrohydrodynamic spray as an alternative manufacturing platform for TFC membranes. By providing greater control over membrane formation, electrospray manufacturing can substantially expand the range of chemistries and morphologies accessible in thin selective layers. This capability creates opportunities to design membranes with performance tailored to specific separations rather than relying on the relatively narrow set of properties available in conventional commercial membranes.
We demonstrate the fabrication of membranes spanning a predictable range of performance and consider how this expanded design space can enable emerging “clever” reverse osmosis processes that require specific membrane properties to achieve low specific energy consumption. We also articulate the value proposition for commercial use cases and discuss opportunities to extend this manufacturing platform to other membrane-based separations.
Bio: Jeffrey McCutcheon is the General Electric Professor of Advanced Manufacturing in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Connecticut and Director of the Connecticut Center for Applied Separations Technologies (CCAST). For more than 20 years, his research has advanced membrane-based separations, with particular contributions to osmotic processes, membrane formation, and emerging approaches to membrane manufacturing. He has published more than 130 refereed articles and is an inventor on several issued patents. His honors include the AIChE Separations Division FRI/Neil Yeoman Innovation Award, the North American Membrane Society Permeance Prize, the Water Research Foundation Paul L. Busch Award, and election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).